“There is Peace” | White Sands National Park
In my opinion, “There is Peace” currently ranks as both
a) the best photo I’ve ever taken
AND
b) my favorite photo in my collection.
Last Spring, I took out on a week-long roadtrip to photograph New Mexico. A couple years earlier, I had taken two of my kids on a Spring Break camping trip to New Mexico where we visited White Sands National Park briefly one morning before making the long drive back home. I have wanted to get back.
I made plans to arrive at the park at sunset, but found the gates already shut at 6pm. A full hour before the good evening light. I was crushed, but decided I’d get up for a sunrise shoot instead.
This was a commitment. I do not do mornings.
I was the third person waived into the Park the next day, and I pulled over at the first viable place I could find. I grabbed my camera (already loaded with a roll of film) and made my way onto the dunes. The air was calm, and the light was perfect.
Just before this shot I said - out loud and to no one but myself - “I am so happy.” And then I started crying. Like, bent-over-hands-on-my-knees crying. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of goodness.
I didn’t deserve that moment, but I was given it. I will forever see this image and know, for a fact, what peace feels like.
